Junior College Top 50: CAC No. 1

Deep
Crop of Division I TransfersHas
Central Arizona in Top SpotCentral
Arizona College coach Jon Wente knows from experience the hazards of
getting too excited about a team with legitimate
national-championship aspirations.
“In
2001, we had three future big leaguers (Ian Kinsler, Scott Hairston
and Rich Harden) on our club, and we didn’t even make it out of
district play,” Wente related. “A year later, with all three
players gone, we won a national championship.”
This
year’s Central Arizona squad, which opens its season Friday,
appears to have all the ingredients to make another run at a national
title and has been ranked No. 1 in Perfect Game’s pre-season look
at the nation’s Top 50 Junior College Teams. And while Wente
acknowledges that this might be his most talented team yet, he is
quick to downplay his team’s chances of potentially winning another
championship.
“We
should be good, as good as any team we’ve had here,” Wente says.
“Our pitching staff, in particular, should be as deep as any. But
you never know for sure what you’ve got when you’re dealing with
junior-college players with various levels of experience, and it’s
also very difficult just getting out of our district and advancing to
the World Series with so many other quality teams in the area.”
Wente
began coaching at CAC 15 years ago—first as an assistant from
1998-2002, during which time the Vaqueros went 228-86. After a
three-year hiatus, he returned to the program in 2006 as head coach
and, not counting a sub-.500 record in his debut, has led the
Vaqueros to a sterling 289-85 record the last six seasons. His teams
have won 10 Region I (Arizona) championships in the last 11 years
that he has been associated with the program and made four
appearances in the Junior College World Series, winning in 2002 while
finishing second in 2011.
The
Vaqueros have no returning position players from last year’s 47-15
club, but welcome back four key pitchers in projected starters Jordan
Kipper (9-3, 2.78), a Texas Christian recruit, and Brandon Zywicki
(8-2, 1.57), a University of San Francisco signee, along with ace
closer Junior Zepeda (2-1, 2.01, 16 saves). Righthander Tatum Hendrix
(9-1, 1.75) also returns.
The
real strength of the team, though, is a banner crop of transfers from
as many as 13 prominent NCAA Division I programs, including the likes
of Arizona, Arkansas, Hawaii, Miami, New Mexico, Oregon, Oregon State
(two), Texas, Vanderbilt and Wichita State.
The
Vaqueros are so deep and talented that they could conceivably have as
many as eight players taken in the first 20-25 rounds of this year’s
draft, including the likes of sophomore righthander Ricky Jacquez, a
transfer from Texas whose fastball has been clocked up to 94 mph.
Jacquez, a 2011 draft pick of the Chicago Cubs who went 2-1, 5.79 in
14 appearances (9 starts) as a freshman for the Longhorns, is slated
to move into the No. 1 spot in the CAC rotation, supplanting Kipper.
Other
potential early- to mid-round selections on the Vaqueros roster
expected to make an immediate impact this spring include outfielders
Jordan Dunatov (Oregon State transfer), Spencer O’Neil (Oregon) and
Sean Hurley (Miami), shortstop David Masters (Arkansas) and
lefthander Cameron Booser (Oregon State).
Freshman
righthander Tony Blanford, a local product and one of the team’s
few high-school recruits, should also be in demand again after being
one Arizona’s top prep recruits a year ago, but he may fine
meaningful innings tough to come by on CAC’s deep, talented
pitching staff.
Though
Central Arizona is located in remote Coolidge (pop. 9,570), situated
roughly midway between Phoenix and Tucson in the Arizona desert, it
has little trouble enticing high-level prospects from established D-I
programs attending school there.
“It’s
pretty much all baseball here; there’s not a whole lot of anything
else to do,” Wente said. “But the environment here enables our
kids to concentrate on baseball, while also spending time in the
classroom and weight room. Our kids usually just hang out with the
same type of people, other athletes that are here for the same
reasons. There are no real distractions for them.”
With
no position players from last year’s club slated to return in 2013
and the June draft exacting a heavy toll on the team’s recruiting
class, CAC coaches had little choice last summer but to go into
overdrive to not only fill out a depleted roster, but attract
significant high-end talent in the process.
“We
were essentially left without a roster, and had little choice but to
go the transfer route for this year,” Wente said. “We ended up
with a lot of quality players, and it’s a credit to our entire
coaching staff that we’ve developed the relationships that we have
with four-year programs, with scouts and other college coaches, that
we were able to find out the names of players that were looking to
transfer and bring them in here.”
CAC’s
recent success and ability to churn out a steady dose of high-end
talent also has done nothing but aid the recruitment process.
“College
players that are looking for increased playing time, or are
struggling with grades or simply have a desire to become eligible for
the draft a year early generally end up in junior college,” Wente
said. “With prominent draft picks like Keenan Walker (supplemental
first-round pick of the Chicago White Sox in 2011) and Fernando Perez
(Padres/third round, 2012) the last couple of years, and others that
have moved on to prominent Division I programs, it gets noticed by
players that might be looking to transfer that we are a viable
option, that we have something significant to offer here.”
It’s
safe to say that a national championship in 2013 would do nothing but
facilitate the team’s cause.